It's ECU flashing time, but I'm not sure which way to go.

[Wintersdark]

I'm still on the stock airbox/exhaust, but would like to change them.  However, it's sort of a chicken and egg thing, where I'd want to reflash with a new exhaust, but can't afford to do it all at once.  So, I figure getting either the 2WDW tune or simply buying an FTECU kit first is really the way to go - I can turn off the fuel cutoff on decel to avoid that twitchy throttle response when cornering, and in either case I'd be good for reflashing once I buy a new exhaust.

If I were in the US, it'd be a no-brainer - I'd just send it to 2WDW and call it a day.  However, I'm in Canada. 

 

My bike is my primary transportation year round, so every day I'm unable to ride to work I'm out upwards of $30 in uber/cab fees as I can't take public transit for most shifts I work.  The border is also a lot sketchier now with mail than it has been in the past, it's a very real possibility that I could get slammed with a huge duty fee, or have my ECU get stuck in customs for weeks.  

 

I'd like to go with the ActiveTune setup in the long run.  My *understanding* is you need to have the FTECU bikeside harness in order to use the ActiveTune kit.  If this is the case, then I'd definitely be looking at just grabbing the FTECU kit and flashing myself.  Is there anything else I should consider when deciding how to go about this?

[Stromer]

Hi there, I just finished installing and flashing ft ecu with bike side harness. Got mine from Bayside Performance Vancouver.

Only have one prior experience with a pc3 on a 1000 Vstrom . Not convinced bike is running better than before. Decel pop off throttle 3 to 4000 rpm so may have to add a bit of fuel there. I used 17 Canada map derestricted.. with pc map for Akra 

007. If I were to do it again I would have ecu flashed as I am not too confident messing with maps. Oddly, when I open the fuel maps the values are slightly different for each cylinder. Anyone know if that's normal?

[Wintersdark]

I'm definitely not confident in messing with fuel maps myself.  I'm not against learning, but I definitely don't really know much about it now.  I mean, I get the basics of it, and have done a great deal of carb tuning over the years, but this is my first EFI bike so it's all new to me. 

 

I had initially thought of just grabbing the stock PC maps and shutting off the decel fuel cutoff.  That's a big annoyance of mine - thought I'd get used to it, but I hate the lack of throttle control in corners that it causes.  But, being in Calgary, I'm at fairly high altitude most of the time - IIRC 3400ft/1050m ASL, so the premade maps may well not be very ideal for my application... though I don't really know how adaptable it is.  

 

But I'm *really* nervous about mailing my ECU over the border and back.  If I ended up without my ECU for a month or two it'd be extremely expensive for me.

[wrxer]

One possible option.  Get a PCV with autotune---you set the A/F ratios & the auto tune creates the map.

Another option--just buy a used ECU & have that one programmed first.  Replace it whenever it arrives.  At $30/day for down time you will have it paid for & not have any down time.

[CarGuy7a]

45 minutes ago, Stromer said:

Hi there, I just finished installing and flashing ft ecu with bike side harness. Got mine from Bayside Performance Vancouver.

Only have one prior experience with a pc3 on a 1000 Vstrom . Not convinced bike is running better than before. Decel pop off throttle 3 to 4000 rpm so may have to add a bit of fuel there. I used 17 Canada map derestricted.. with pc map for Akra 

007. If I were to do it again I would have ecu flashed as I am not too confident messing with maps. Oddly, when I open the fuel maps the values are slightly different for each cylinder. Anyone know if that's normal?

You have 2 options to help decel popping if you have the FTECU. Option 1 would be to do it in the map. From 2000 RPM up to rev limit you can add fuel trim in the 0% throttle range to reduce the off throttle popping. I have my fuel trim set to 5 in my PCV and it cured the issue. Option 2 should be a one click solution and that is to change the decel injector fuel cut parameter. This will add fuel while off throttle to reduce the popping and it also helps with engine braking. Just DO NOT do both options at the same time or it will be dumping tons of fuel while decelerating and kill your fuel mileage. As far as your concern with each cylinder map being slightly different should be fine. No 2 cylinders will flow exactly the same (maybe in a perfect world which doesn't exist) so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

Fuel maps are pretty easy to understand. Positive fuel trims add fuel while negative trims remove it. This is good and all but it's just numbers and with a PCV or flash tune only there's no way to tell what really is going on without the use of a wideband O2 sensor to give specific AFR values like what a PCV autotune or FTECU's active tune would give you. As far as timing, that's a whole other beast that without a dyno and professional guidance, I myself would not want to touch. I leave my timing as to what dynojet has it set at in their base maps.

 

Wintersdark: IMO in your case, I would just save the money up and wait so you can buy the FTECU w/active tune and your exhaust at one time. I know waiting sucks but it makes it worth while when you can get it all done at one time.

[mossrider]

FYI

 

New ecu's sell for $383

Ebay used around $150

[Wintersdark]

Yeah, buying a second ECU isn't really a viable way to go.  That's another $200CDN+ shelled out to have something I already have.  It certainly would be cheaper than leaning on Uber to get to work, of course.

 

My fear with the ECU being gone too long isn't just that I don't want to spend that much more, but rather that I really can't afford to.  Only really went into that because in discussions like these, a lot of people come from a position of "My bike is my toy/hobby, and I have a car for day to day usage" so having your bike off the road for, say, January and February isn't really a big deal.  That's really not the case for me, as it's my primary transportation.  I can arrange a week or two, but beyond that would be a serious problem.

 

Autotune: Yeah; that's my long term goal.  I'd still probably go FTECU and their autotune kit vs. the PCV version, as it's cheaper and very well supported on these bikes.  Needing both kits (PCV/FTECU + Autotune kit) though is pretty expensive up front.  I'm looking at around a 35% price increase in currency exchange alone.  

[shinyribs]

If it helps, I have a full Arrow system and a stock ecu. 14k miles later and zero issues. I changed my plugs a while back ( I think around 10-12k miles?) and the plugs looked great. The engine is safe. I planned to do exhaust and eventually do the ecu, but I'm not gonna worry about the ecu at this point. I read too many posts about flashed bikes getting horrible fuel mileage, though that may not be the norm.

 

Of course, I can't speak to every exhaust system out there, so take it for what it's worth. 

[Littlebriar]

This might be too expensive for you but I bought a Rapidbike autotune from Bellissimoto.  Works great and I never have to send it back when I add stuff. Check with Paul there and he might be able to get you a better deal. They are forum sponsors.

[Wintersdark]

4 hours ago, Littlebriar said:

This might be too expensive for you but I bought a Rapidbike autotune from Bellissimoto.  Works great and I never have to send it back when I add stuff. Check with Paul there and he might be able to get you a better deal. They are forum sponsors.

And that's the full kit?  Put that on an otherwise stock bike and your good to go (vs needing the base ftecu/PCV kit *and* the autotune kit)?  

[JayMT07]

I'm in Ontario, Canada and here's my experience with 2WDW. 

 

 

I'm not sure where you are in Canada, but if you're on the West Coast, shipping time would be half that I experienced or even less. 

[Wintersdark]

3 hours ago, JayMT07 said:

I'm in Ontario, Canada and here's my experience with 2WDW. 

 

 

I'm not sure where you are in Canada, but if you're on the West Coast, shipping time would be half that I experienced or even less. 

Calgary.  The shipping time shouldn't be bad, but the danger is things getting tied up in customs.  It's gotten a lot worse over the last while.

[JayMT07]

1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

Calgary.  The shipping time shouldn't be bad, but the danger is things getting tied up in customs.  It's gotten a lot worse over the last while.

I was worried it would be tied up in customs or lost altogether.  I do recall tracking it daily (even a few times a day) just to see where it was at and when it came into customs for processing it was cleared by customs in an hour or less, there and back. 

 

Good luck with whichever route you choose to do the flash. I'm just jealous you're still able to ride. 

[Wintersdark]

27 minutes ago, JayMT07 said:

I was worried it would be tied up in customs or lost altogether.  I do recall tracking it daily (even a few times a day) just to see where it was at and when it came into customs for processing it was cleared by customs in an hour or less, there and back. 

 

Good luck with whichever route you choose to do the flash. I'm just jealous you're still able to ride. 

It's very cold and occassionally snowy (as per Calgary), but the right gear goes a long ways and the roads are generally ok - so long as you account for the sand, gravel, really cold tires, etc.  

 

Fortunately it doesn't really snow a lot here, so main roads are clear and dry most of the time.  

 

Just gotta deal with it being very, very cold

[Littlebriar]

10 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

And that's the full kit?  Put that on an otherwise stock bike and your good to go (vs needing the base ftecu/PCV kit *and* the autotune kit)?  

Yes, that's all you need. Whenever you change equipment it adjusts after a couple hundred miles. It will smooth out the throttle response without a flash. You can hook it up to a laptop and save and restore tunes as well. I installed it myself without issue. I would recommend you call Paul  @Bellissimoto. He will explain it better than me. I have received special pricing by telling him I am a forum member. They are a sponsor. 

[WankyMcTugger]

I found this video to be pretty informative. He explains why he feels a tune is needed, and why he went with the kit he went with.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgTBg16Lm4

 

[Beemer]

2 hours ago, WankyMcTugger said:

I found this video to be pretty informative. He explains why he feels a tune is needed, and why he went with the kit he went with.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgTBg16Lm4

 

BRAAAAAH, HA, HAAAAAA!!!!

 

No, I'm not laughing at the video (didn't even watch it), it's your screen name. It's just too funny! 

[samallen1999]

I just ordered an ftecu kit to flash with my exhaust that I will be installing. Having the ftecu seems a lot more convenient than shipping it off to 2WDW. They have their little pitch about how their maps are tuned perfectly for our bikes, but are they really that much better to justify waiting a week every time you want to flash the ecu?  I mean what if I end up not liking the disable fuel cut on decel option? I'd rather not be stuck waiting a week just to change a simple option.

 

Maybe I'm not completely understanding, but isn't flashing your own bike with ftecu the same thing 2WDW is doing just without their fuel/ignition maps? How much better could their maps be than the fuel maps on power commander's site? I figure flashing the ecu yourself is the better way to go plus later you can add the active tune or even ftecu's quick shifter. 

 

Edit*

Also if you're serious about tuning then having the ftecu opens the possibility of having a proper dyno tune.

Edited January 6, 2019 by samallen1999

[DewMan]

6 minutes ago, samallen1999 said:

I just ordered an ftecu kit to flash with my exhaust that I will be installing. Having the ftecu seems a lot more convenient than shipping it off to 2WDW. They have their little pitch about how their maps are tuned perfectly for our bikes, but are they really that much better to justify waiting a week every time you want to flash the ecu?  I mean what if I end up not liking the disable fuel cut on decel option? I'd rather not be stuck waiting a week just to change a simple option.

 

Maybe I'm not completely understanding, but isn't flashing your own bike with ftecu the same thing 2WDW is doing just without their fuel/ignition maps? How much better could their maps be than the fuel maps on power commander's site? I figure flashing the ecu yourself is the better way to go plus later you can add the active tune or even ftecu's quick shifter. 

If you like tinkering with your ride, then you'll enjoy the ftecu.

If you want plug and play you'll appreciate the 2WDW flash.

 

Both have plus and minus which are fairly obvious.

 

For me the 2WDW flash was the option I went with since my FZ-07 is not my daily driver. So waiting a week, once in a blue moon, for a flash is not a big deal.

[Juzo]

Hey, i'm in Edmonton. What did you end up doing?

[xfonts]

1 hour ago, Juzo said:

Hey, i'm in Edmonton. What did you end up doing?

It's not a mutual exclusive choice, 2WDW can send you a custom map that you can flash yourself. No need to send in your ECU.

[DewMan]

On 5/27/2020 at 3:50 AM, xfonts said:

It's not a mutual exclusive choice, 2WDW can send you a custom map that you can flash yourself. No need to send in your ECU.

They could but I doubt they would.

Really late edit: I may be mistaken. I have heard that they will send you a map from other forum members.

Edited August 1, 2020 by DewMan
New facts come to light

[xfonts]

1 hour ago, DewMan said:

They could but I doubt they would.

I wouldn't doubt as that's what I'm doing.

[Juzo]

9 hours ago, xfonts said:

I wouldn't doubt as that's what I'm doing.

Thanks! Let me know how it goes 

[Joaoduarte]

I went power commander v + autotune almost rolled my eyes out when i saw the adjustments made to the map of dynojet site, that maps are way off (iam from Portugal europe - sea level 30°celsius) and now after all the adjustments the bike is transformed a complete beast comparing to before. Also i dont know how the ftecu maps are but if people use the dynojet maps they way they are on the website they are not going to see any good difference and if they see its because of the ignition advance on the maps. Also the ftecu maps without further adjustments are not going to be o spot for sure AFR changes a lot depending on where you are, the bike itself your setup etc. Iam very happy with power commander also the good thing about it is that i added a quickshifter wich i control on power commander, can add launch control for fun increase rpm limiter i mean loads of things and in the end iam by myself no need to go to a tuner everytime i change a filter or an exhaust or whatever. Just my opinion.i ended up doing a map for dbkiller in vs dbkiller out and it changes a lot the afrs between them (akrapovic ti exhaust + DNA lid + filter)